Design and Engineering of a Breakwater in Cyprus

Breakwaters form the barrier between destructive sea forces and infrastructure which would be severely damaged by those forces. When not being used for this purpose, larger breakwaters can be visually. For a new mega-yacht marina which will house luxury villas, vessels, and commercial spaces, a marriage between functionality and aesthetics must be met. This paper outlines the process followed to physically test breakwater designs which were heavily influenced by quarry limitations, safety thresholds, sightlines, and an extreme wave environment. With a vertical restriction, multiple cross sections looking at Tetrapods and Accropode IIs concrete armor units were tested and analyzed. In line with supporting literature, the double layer Tetrapod armor reduced wave run up and overtopping compared with the single layer Accropode II system. To obtain the same overtopping characteristics, the Accropode II crest elevation would need to be higher, leading to more of a visual impediment. Therefore, while cost implications may have led to another choice, Tetrapods were selected as the preferred armor unit and cross section.